"Have none of you ever owned shares in an entity that is not exchange traded?"

I still own 10000 shares of Namibian Minerals Corp with zero value sitting in my account since 2003 and I can even get it removed, I also had a biotech company that was suspended from trading, after a couple of years the company had a reversed takeover at .0005 cent per share, I got back if I remember correctly $19.00, also just over a month ago i got a few hundred $$ back from washington mutual lawsuit settlement, filed my claim back in 2011 and have being waiting hoping to get back a few thousand, not to be, a couple of hundred from 3 account, still waiting for Citi Group settlement to come, only now I expect a very small check, I learnt over and over not to expect much coming back, the players and law firms always gets the lions share.

http://cto-iov.csa-acvm.ca/ArticleFile.asp?Instance=101&ID=34A68C4612764078AA073FB1D43A7C8E

http://www.washingtonmutualsecuritieslitigationsettlement.com/